Hornby 2023 - Bluetooth decoders and control system

[RedgateModels]

8 minutes ago, Bulleidboy100 said:

No Class 20 at this time - many more to follow in due course.

 

use the class 40, that whistles the same 🤣😈

[Bulleidboy100]

No Class 40 at this time.

[RedgateModels]

Ah, so the list one page 1 is not what is available at launch?

[Bulleidboy100]

The list will be available at launch, and is being added to regularly - hopefully not long to wait.

[Ighten]

Well DPD just arrived with three huge boxes..One with one 15v lead in it the other with 8 pin TSX decoders and the other with a 21 pin.. At least the cats going to have fun with all the boxes and paper but its odd; I even got postage refunded on the 15v adapter cable after a phone call yet its still arrived in a huge box on its own.

[Porfuera]

26 minutes ago, Ighten said:

Well DPD just arrived with three huge boxes..One with one 15v lead in it the other with 8 pin TSX decoders and the other with a 21 pin.. At least the cats going to have fun with all the boxes and paper but its odd; I even got postage refunded on the 15v adapter cable after a phone call yet its still arrived in a huge box on its own.

 

My Next18 sound decoder arrived wrapped in almost a square metre of bubblewrap and that was rattling around in a box that was almost the size of a shoebox. A bit over the top - the decoder has its own box anyway so I think a jiffy bag would have done the job for that one.

 

I dread to think how much bubblewrap and cardboard they used on your order by shipping the items separately.

 

And I've just been notified that three TT:120 wagons are about to be sent to me - three separate emails with three separate order numbers - I wonder if that will be three separate parcels...

Edited March 15, 2023 by Porfuera

[RedgateModels]

32 minutes ago, Porfuera said:

 

I wonder if that will be three separate parcels...

 

almost certainly .....

[meatloaf]

Do we know what speakers we need for these?

 

Im thinking more for the locos that already have prefitted spreakers which arent necessarily Hornby.

 

Off the top of my head im thinking the next 18 one for a farish 31 or Bachmann J72 with built in speaker. Or the 21 pin for the accurascale deltic or accurascale 37.

[D3489gibson]

11 minutes ago, meatloaf said:

Do we know what speakers we need for these?

 

Im thinking more for the locos that already have prefitted spreakers which arent necessarily Hornby.

 

Off the top of my head im thinking the next 18 one for a farish 31 or Bachmann J72 with built in speaker. Or the 21 pin for the accurascale deltic or accurascale 37.

 

The decoder should pick up the feed from the built in speakers, so long as they're wired in already, so you shouldn't need to plug in the speaker that comes with the decoder. 

 

Nathan... 

[Grovenor]

But speakers come in different impedance values and the wrong one can cause damage or just not work.

The technical data on the website is laughable, does the decoder come with an adequate data sheet?

[Bulleidboy100]

The Hornby speakers are 8 ohms

[meatloaf]

Sadlly my decoder seems to have stopped working correctly so will probably need to be returned.

 

Didnt work great in a railroad 37 stop start stop start but the looco wasnt great on DC

 

So i installed it in a class 20 where it worked great for a few hours. Then without warning it shot off at full speed and wouldnt respond to the controller so had to  cut power to the layout.

 

Now with power restored the sound works when stationary but move to speed step 1 and it shoots off again for a second then stops. Does this repeatedly. So deffo an issue there as this loco runs perfectly with a normal decoder.

 

Without the app i cant load a sound file to it to see if it fixes the issue so looks like its a return for a refund - along with the class 37 i purcashed at the same time.

[meatloaf]

22 minutes ago, Grovenor said:

But speakers come in different impedance values and the wrong one can cause damage or just not work.

The technical data on the website is laughable, does the decoder come with an adequate data sheet?

no nothing to suggest what cvs do what apart from default address of 3 and DCC mode on by default

[Bob83a]

Have you changed any CVs. By default the decoder will have settings specific for an A1/A3.

The motor, gearing and wheel sizes will be different for the models that you have tried and hence things like the acceleration and deceleration will be wrong as well as start and max voltages.

 

The NMRA defined CV’s will be the same as the standard, and any other compliant decoder, so documentation from any source can be used.

 

In fact even if you install the decoder in an A1/A3 then you would need to download the latest profile, as the default is going to be out of date, and will not work “perfectly”. The default profile would have been loaded into the decoder several months ago and things will have changed since then.

[meatloaf]

19 minutes ago, Bob83a said:

Have you changed any CVs. By default the decoder will have settings specific for an A1/A3.

The motor, gearing and wheel sizes will be different for the models that you have tried and hence things like the acceleration and deceleration will be wrong as well as start and max voltages.

 

The NMRA defined CV’s will be the same as the standard, and any other compliant decoder, so documentation from any source can be used.

 

In fact even if you install the decoder in an A1/A3 then you would need to download the latest profile, as the default is going to be out of date, and will not work “perfectly”. The default profile would have been loaded into the decoder several months ago and things will have changed since then.

No the only cvs ive touched was cv8 to 8 to reset it.

 

i get what your saying about the profiles, but for a short time it ran really nice with the default settings. Then after the runaway  its got a lot worse. 

 

Im assuming the 37 profile is tuned to the railroad 37 as its the only 37 they do.

 

Without the app i cant reload the sound file so the only option may be returning it as im not prepared to wait for weeks for the app only to find its defective after all.

[RedgateModels]

2 hours ago, Grovenor said:

But speakers come in different impedance values and the wrong one can cause damage or just not work.

The technical data on the website is laughable, does the decoder come with an adequate data sheet?

 

QR Code on the box takes you to an area on the Hornby website where amongst other things is this:HM7000 Series Decoders Reference Manual - 140323.pdf

[Grovenor]

Thankyou.

[RedgateModels]

First concern after a quick scan - no function mapping on the non-sound decoders …….

[Kaput]

24 minutes ago, RedgateModels said:

First concern after a quick scan - no function mapping on the non-sound decoders …….

 

No mapping on the sound decoders either. Which makes having a brake sound on F4 but an actual active brake on F27 a bit of a pain with normal DCC controllers....

 

 

https://support.Hornby.com/hc/en-gb/articles/8070608241052-HM7000-HM-DCC-Profile-Function-Maps

[meatloaf]

After several attempts to reset CV8 to 8 it seems to be running ok again.

 

So lets check its not me causing an issue...

 

The test class 20 has a metal chassis so to insulate the decoder i put a strip of insulating tape between the decoder and the chassis to avoid a short.

 

Its quite a snug fit when the body goes back on. Just checking im not causing it to overheat as its going to be a far more snug fit in the 08.

[NIK]

14 minutes ago, meatloaf said:

After several attempts to reset CV8 to 8 it seems to be running ok again.

 

So lets check its not me causing an issue...

 

The test class 20 has a metal chassis so to insulate the decoder i put a strip of insulating tape between the decoder and the chassis to avoid a short.

 

Its quite a snug fit when the body goes back on. Just checking im not causing it to overheat as its going to be a far more snug fit in the 08.

Hi,

 

I've found the pins on some decoder plugs sharp enough to cut through insulating tape. I guess 5 thou plastic card might fare better.

 

Regards

 

Nik

[meatloaf]

For info i emailled SK about the app asking when its due. He replied very quickly saying the IOS version will be out within days but the Android version is still a few weeks away.

[RAF96]

18 hours ago, Grovenor said:

But speakers come in different impedance values and the wrong one can cause damage or just not work.

The technical data on the website is laughable, does the decoder come with an adequate data sheet?

No it comes with a 130 page downloadable user manual covering all decoders in the 7000 range, see link in above post, as well as the downloadable function allocations for each sound profile also linked to above.

Edited March 16, 2023 by RAF96

[RedgateModels]

1 minute ago, RAF96 said:

No it comes with a 130 page downloadable user manual covering all decoders in the 7000 range, see link in above post.

to be fair to Keith he did thank me for the link, so he does now know of the manuals 😉

[Kaput]

If the above linked manual is the one provided to actual end users I'm slightly surprised.

 

It reads very much like documentation made by the actual engineers or developers that made the decoders/software and has a number of areas that just don't read as user friendly to me.

 

 

Do have to laugh at the app being weeks away for Android still when its the easier platform to get an app on (less checks than Apple) and arguably the bigger market.